Suspected Paris attack mastermind killed in police raid - prosecutor

The alleged mastermind and sponsor of attacks in the French capital on Friday, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed during an anti-terrorist operation in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday, Paris prosecutor François Molins said.

His body was found under the wreckage of the building in Saint-Denis, which was stormed in Wednesday's raid.

"Abdel Hamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified and certified killed during the raid, after comparing fingerprints," the statement said. "It was the bullet-ridden body we discovered in the building," Paris persecutor François Molins said.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls praised the elimination of one of the masterminds behind the Paris attacks.

"We salute the work of the intelligence services and the police," said Valls.

On Wednesday morning French police and army launched an anti-terrorist raid in the suburb of Saint-Denis, killing at least 2 radicals. Later in the day reports claimed that Abaaoud, who was the target of that operation, was killed in the raid.

Abaaoud is said to be from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, notorious for being an Islamist hotspot. It is the same area where another suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was raised.